N.L.'s active COVID-19 caseload drops to 4 as province reports no new cases

Newfoundland and Labrador has nonew cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, making itfourstraight days without a case.

The Department of Health also announced five new recoveries, all in the Eastern Health region,meaning there are now four active cases in the province.

One person is in hospital due to the virus.

Vaccines in both the Central Health and Western Health regions officially began this week, asdoses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were administered to front-line health-care workers.

The Northern Peninsula regulated by Labrador-Grenfell Health could see its first residents vaccinatedin the first week of February asSt. Anthony is slated to receiveitsultra-low temperature freezer, necessary to store the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine,in the next few weeks.

Theprovince is expected to receive17,000 total doses of thePfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccinesby the end of January, which is enough for 8,500 people.

The next COVID-19 briefing with government and public health officials is scheduled for Monday, after Friday's regularly scheduled briefing was cancelled due to what Premier Andrew Furey called a scheduling conflict.

To date, 74,493 people have been tested, an increase of 226in the last 24 hours.

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